Des Moines Register
06-16-06
Winners' work made land in Brazil fertile
World Food Prize recipients found key to viability
By PHILIP BRASHER
REGISTER WASHINGTON BUREAU
Washington, D.C. — An American scientist and two Brazilians have been
awarded the 2006 World Food Prize for their work in turning Brazil into one of the
world's agricultural powerhouses.
A. Colin McClung's pioneering soil fertility research in the 1950s showed that
applications of lime and nutrients could dramatically increase crop yields in
Brazil's vast Cerrado region, once a brush-covered savannah. The Portuguese
name means "closed, inaccessible land."
The other two recipients are H.E. Alysson Paolinelli, who developed credit and
rural development programs and increased crop research as Brazil's minister of
agriculture in the 1970s, and Edson Lobato, a top Brazilian soil specialist who
expanded on McClung's work.
Brazil more than tripled its agricultural production between 1970 and 2000, and
now ranks second to the United States in production of soybeans.
Norman Borlaug, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate who established the food prize,
said the Cerrado's development "is a tremendous accomplishment. I say one of
the greatest of the last century."
Rich-county farmers think Brazil's success "is to their disadvantage," but they
shouldn't, said Borlaug, speaking in the State Department's ornate Benjamin
Franklin room where the honorees' names were announced.
"If we want a peaceful world, it won't be built on empty stomachs and human
misery," he said.
The three men will receive the prize in Des Moines this fall. This is the first year
that the $250,000 award has been shared by more than two people.
The Cerrado's development has lowered the prices that U.S. farmers are paid for
soybeans. But Brazil also has provided a new market for seed companies like
Des Moines-based Pioneer Hi-Bred International and equipment manufacturers
such as Deere & Co.
Brazil will increasingly compete with the United States in production of hogs and
poultry, said Bruce Babcock, an agricultural economist at Iowa State
University.
Lobato said Brazil's agricultural boom reduced the cost of food in the country by
5 percent a year.
"I believe that competition, to a certain extent, is good for ... mankind," he said in
an e-mail to a reporter.
McClung, 82, was a scientist at what is now North Carolina State University when
he was sent to Brazil to work on restoring frost-damaged coffee plantations.
While there, he got permission to work on improving the poor soils he found. He
showed that applications of lime would neutralize the toxic levels of aluminum
and added nutrients such as phosphorus, potassium and nitrogen.
The results were astonishing: Test plots of corn produced up to 100 bushels per
acre, while untreated control plots might produce nothing at all, he said. In 1960,
the average corn yield in Iowa was less than 64 bushels per acre. Cotton and
soybeans did similarly well.
"We found enormous interest on the part of the Brazilian farmers," he said.
Last year, 100 million acres of the Cerrado were in cultivation, according to the
World Food Prize Foundation. That's an area equivalent to the combined
acreage planted in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri and Nebraska.
Brazil produced about 56 million metric tons of soybeans last year, second only
to the U.S. crop of 84 million.
McClung believes the lessons learned from using lime and fertilizer in Brazil
could be applied in other regions, including Africa. That view is shared by
Borlaug, who is called the father of the "green revolution" that dramatically
boosted food production in Asia.
Borlaug said Brazil's farming technology could help Colombia, Venezuela and
eventually Africa, where similar soils are found.
Africa's development, however, is hindered by poor roads and rail service, which
prevent fertilizer from getting to farmers and their crops from reaching markets,
Borlaug said.
Africa also lacks researchers such as those who were critical in developing the
Cerrado, said Calestous Juma, a specialist in international development at
Harvard University.
Key to Brazil's success was the establishment of the national agricultural
research program that Paolinelli was instrumental in creating, Juma said.
"You have a basis around which you can harness your scientific and
technological expertise and put it to use," he said. "In Africa, these kinds of
institutions are very weak."
Development of the Cerrado has not been without environmental costs.
Farming has destroyed habitat for frogs, birds and other species, and additional
habitat the size of New Jersey is cleared each year, said John Buchanan,
director of agriculture and fisheries for Conservation International, a Washingtonbased group.
To curb the damage, his group is working to get farmers to comply with a law that
requires 20 percent of their acreage to be set aside for natural habitat.
"We need agriculture. We don't intend to stop it in Brazil, but we need smarter
and better agriculture," Buchanan said.